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Cyberbullying Acquittal

Missouri’s first post-Megan Meiercyberbullying prosecution ended in the defendant’s acquittal. Elizabeth Thrasher was charged with harassment after a spat with her ex-husband’s girlfriend’s teenage daughter led her to post personal information and photos culled from the daughter’s MySpace page on a Craigslist sex-wanted site. The daughter kicked off the spat by calling Thrasher a “fat fucking bitch” in an email. The Missouri law was enacted after the much-publicized suicide of 13-year old Megan Meier, after Meier was bullied by a neighborhood mother acting through a fictitious MySpace proxy. (I need diagrams to understand these relationships.) Following the acquittal the state prosecutor said “I think there are some difficulties with the statute that were brought to our attention.” If convicted Thrasher faced up to four years imprisonment.

One thought on “Cyberbullying Acquittal”

This is terribly uncalled for and the mother is acting like a child. It's quite possible that the mother resents her ex-husband, and she's just taking it out on the person who quite possibly might become his step daughter. I think it's easier put that way. Though there's so many cases where bullying can lead someone to commit suicide or even homicide, and so the mother should not be doing this. It reminds me of what happened at Rutgers recently, where a homosexual student was recorded through a webcam engaging in sexual behavior. It was live-streamed. That was uncalled for, and immature as well. The student who was humiliated jumped off a bridge.

I think it's always immaturity that can lead people to unfortunate results. Some become, sadly, may resort to shooting others and then committing suicide and some just kill themselves. It sucks that sometimes people can't always take into consideration all the possible consequences of their actions. Bullies, I imagine, tend to think that it's worth putting someone through a humiliating situation as long as it can get them some attention.

Mothers, of all people, should not be engaging in cyber-bullying. This woman, regardless of whether she is a mother or not, should honestly try to think about whether or not she'd be okay with her new boyfriend's girlfriend posting pictures of Thrasher's daughter (whether she has a child is not important to making my point).

I feel as though I'll have more to say, but as for now, this is it. I think you should consider making diagrams, it'd be cool.